The four-day conference starts August 6 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel. The conference, which is held in Washington every other August and at venues around the country in alternate years, is a big draw with people who develop, make, service, supply or acquire unmanned vehicles – from bomb-defusing robots to bird-sized air vehicles to keep tabs on criminals and terrorists.

With requirements imposed by Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration is working on rules for integrating unmanned aircraft into the National Air Space by 2015. Just how that will be accomplished while keeping drones and commercial aircraft out of each other’s way is expected to be a hot topic at the conference. The FAA predicts there could be as many as 20,000 unmanned aircraft flying in U.S. skies within the next 10 years.

Speakers and panel discussion will also address cyber security challenges, as well as privacy and ethics issues posed by smaller and smaller unmanned surveillance systems, civil and law enforcement uses for robots and drones, new developments in maritime systems, export regulations on selling unmanned technology overseas and the latest technology developments.

Keynote speakers will include the acting head of the FAA, the secretary of the unmanned aircraft systems study group for the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence and the deputy chief of naval operations for warfare systems.

Your 4GWAR editor will be among the thousands of attendees, bringing you word of the latest developments in unmanned systems – especially for special operations, intelligence and surveillance, law enforcement and homeland security.